The Yggdrasil Tree : Edda Oblongata (detail)

• Format: Still Image
• Language: French
• Subjects: fantasy; Écrivains et conteurs; Iceland
• Online Access: http://ark.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/mm6182011759; http://expositions.bnf.fr/fantasy/en/grand/fan_068.php

This late manuscript of the Edda in prose dates from the end of the 17th century. Its originality lies in its form, longer than it is wide, which earned it the name Edda Oblongata , and its 23 illustrations representing subjects from Norse mythology. Qualified in the poem Grímnismál as the "best of the trees", Yggdrasil is in the same text a gathering place for the gods who come here to pass their judgments. The sources describe Yggdrasil as the tree carrying the different worlds of the Scandinavian medieval narratives and its three main roots point in three directions: one at the Aesir, the second at the giants, and the third above Niflheim. Various animals — eagles, falcons, deer, squirrels and dragons — are bustling around him. In the poem Hávamál , Odin hangs himself from a tree thought to be Yggdrasil.